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On Monday, September 12, the New Jersey Senate Law and Public Safety Committee is scheduled to consider S152 – legislation that would criminalize possession of the SS190AP (armor piercing) round for the FN Five-Seven handgun – ammunition that is already banned under existing law.

The bill’s statement goes out of its way to demonize the SS190AP round, but neglects to mention that it is already against federal law to manufacture armor-piercing ammunition or import it for sale to the public pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 922(a)(7) and (8). The statement further neglects to indicate that armor-piercing ammunition is already banned under state law (N.J.S. 2C:39-3f), and that the round is not available to civilians.

S152 is thus redundant with existing law and the need for this legislation is non-existent. It would neither change anything nor make anyone safer.

Banning hardware always fails to reduce gun crime, because someone bent on doing evil will not be deterred when one particular tool is unavailable. The fact of the matter is that the criminal misuse of ANY type of ammunition should be severely punished, not just the SS190AP. This legislation does absolutely nothing to punish or deter criminals who use ammunition that is not banned, and squanders an opportunity to meaningfully address gun crime.

Although the SS190AP is already banned under existing law, those who wish to weigh in anyway with committee members can find their contact information here.